Exactly as It Was

Days after an inferno blazed through Notre-Dame this April, destroying the cathedral’s iconic spire and two-thirds of its wooden roof, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced an international competition aimed at replacing the fallen tower with a new “spire suited to the techniques and challenges of our time.”
 But the inventive redesigns architects proposed aren’t likely to grace the Parisian skyline any time soon: As Le Monde reports, France’s Senate voted Monday to restore the Parisian cathedral to its “last known visual state” prior to the fire, directly contradicting other government officials’ hopes for a more contemporary design.
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